Fear: A Story in Three Parts

This article reflects on the story of Army PFC Jesse A. Givens. It is a story of fear in three parts. I hope to gain understanding of emotion as part of a private experience, and interpersonal communication, and a public event. As the story will show, fear can be defined in purely cognitive terms.

Fear can also be defined as “cognition plus.” Argued here is that a purely cognitive approach is inadequate for a complete analysis of emotion’s role in collective decision-making. What seems critical is that proponents of both pure cognition and cognition plus move beyond definitions of emotion that focus on biological and reflexive processes.